Zola

/ˈzəʊlə; French zɔla/

noun

1.

Émile (emil). 1840–1902, French novelist and critic; chief exponent of naturalism. In Les Rougon-Macquart (1871–93), a cycle of 20 novels, he explains the behaviour of his characters in terms of their heredity: it includes L'Assommoir (1877), Nana (1880), Germinal (1885), and La Terre (1887). He is also noted for his defence of Dreyfus in his pamphlet J'accuse (1898)